PREVIOUSLY AT FILM FORUM
Last Presented Friday, February 19 through Thursday, February 25, 2010 		Share Share this page

“THIS IS ESSENTIAL VIEWING -- A film like few others!" – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times (November 5, 2009). ***** [five stars - highest rating] “AN EPIPHANY! WHAT CAPITAL-C CINEMA LOOKS LIKE IN ITS PUREST FORM!" – David Fear, Time Out New York

A PRODUCTION OF THE ARCHERS

“CATCH IT HERE NOW, AND YOU WILL NOT JUST BE SEEING AN OLD FILM MADE NEW; YOU WILL HAVE YOUR VISION RESTORED. A blindingly rich and refulgent print... watching The Red Shoes, whatever the quality, on the small screen is like drinking champagne, whatever the vintage, through a plastic straw.” – Anthony Lane, The New Yorker (February 8, 2010) http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2010/02/08/100208crci_cinema_lane?currentPage=
"There was never a screen pairing more magical than Moira Shearer and Technicolor. There are many great works of art about obsession, but this is surely the most gorgeous and haunting." – Maureen Dowd, The New York Times (November 7, 2009). “GLORIOUS! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT IN A THEATER, JETÉ - DON'T WALK!” – David Edelstein, New York magazine "You’ve simply never seen a deep red like Shearer’s mane when she catches Walbrook’s eye, or a baby blue the equivalent of his shirt when he offers her the role of a lifetime, or such a lush forest-green as the train carriage where a Mephistophelean deal is struck. It’s always been essential viewing; thanks to this hallucinogenically gorgeous restoration, the expressionistic landmark now feels genuinely life-altering." – David Fear, Time Out New York Click here to read entire review “TRULY ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL TECHNICOLOR FILMS EVER MADE!” – Martin Scorsese Click to read Martin Scorsese's interviews with Time Out New York and The New York Times on The Red Shoes “AWASH IN SUMPTUOUS COLOR AND MUSIC – ONE OF THE MOST EYE-POPPING AND HEARTRENDING MELODRAMAS EVER MADE. No flatscreen TV will ever do it justice - see it in the theater.” – David Edelstein, New York magazine “MAGNIFICENT! EYE-POPPING, DELIRIOUS SPECTACLE! Powell & Pressburger's masterpiece offers us the extraordinary experience of watching the burning commitment to perfection.” – Melissa Anderson, The Village Voice Click here to read entire review “THIS IS INDEED A RED SHOES TO DIE FOR!” – Sight & Sound

(1948) “Why do you want to dance?” “Why do you want to live?” Anton Walbrook’s Lermontov is not interested when red-tressed Moira Shearer desperately wants to join his troupe — but then he sees her dance. And then the Red Shoes ballet, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of shoes that dance the wearer to death, will be her triumph. But when she finds romance with composer Marius Goring, it’s the eternal battle between Life and Art. Perhaps the greatest triumph of triply-credited (producers, writers, directors) “The Archers” — aka Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger — following their successive smashes A Matter of Life and Death and Black Narcissus, Powell agreed to film Pressburger’s decade-old script if they could create an original ballet from scratch and cast an actual ballerina in the lead — and then their discovery, 21-year-old non-actress Shearer, took almost a year to make up her mind. With Léonide Massine (actual Ballets Russes choreographer and Nijinsky’s successor as chief soloist) as the troupe’s maître de ballet, and also dancing the role of The Shoemaker; and Sir-to-be Robert Helpmann choreographing everyone else, the 17-minute ballet is a tour de force, its Oscar-winning score produced in record time by Brian Easdale when a predecessor’s attempt was rejected in toto. Shoes would run 110 straight weeks in New York alone; but in recent years, while relatively decent prints have been in circulation, none have come close to the brilliance of Jack Cardiff’s legendary original Technicolor photography. UCLA’s Robert Gitt and team have gone back to the damaged original nitrate materials, including the still-extant three-strip camera negs; his digital restoration led to a negative used to strike this breathtaking new 35mm print.
AN MGM RELEASE

Links for The Red Shoes

“The restoration does full justice to what has to be one of the most exquisite color films ever made, filled with the kind of deep, vivid hues that will leave viewers literally gasping. THOSE RED SHOES HAVE NEVER LOOKED REDDER, OR MORE ALLURING, THAN THEY DO TODAY.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

“Passion drives every single, extraordinary moment of The Red Shoes, and it’s what makes the film’s glorious Technicolor images so forceful and moving, now restored to their full, shimmering beauty... The vivid reds and deep blues, the vibrant yellows and rich blacks, the lustrous fleshtones of the closeups... so many moments, so many conflicting emotions, such a swirl of color and light and sound, all burned into my mind from the very first viewing, the first of many. Together with their extraordinary collaborators, Powell and Pressburger created something enduring and enthralling.” – Martin Scorsese
Click here to read entire review Click here to read entire review Click here to read entire review Click here to read entire review Click to read Martin Scorsese's interviews with Time Out New York on The Red Shoes Click to read Martin Scorsese's interviews with The New York Times on The Red Shoes